Catherwood LibraryILR School

This week, McDonald’s employees in eight states filed ten sexual harassment, assault, and retaliation complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. A recent analysis of government data done by the Center for American Progress revealed that food service workers are three times more likely to file a harassment complaint as higher paid workers are. A different survey done by Hart Research Associates in 2016 showed that 40 percent of women fast-food workers said that they have had unwanted sexual encounters at the workplace, including groping and lewd comments. A charity called Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund was launched in January to help low-income workers report sexual harassment in the workplace. The fund has raised $21 million dollars from roughly 20,000 donors. Employees at independently owned franchises could be more at-risk of abuse, according to some employment lawyers. A large majority of some 14,000 U.S. McDonalds outlets are independently operated by franchisees.